Ruapane Lookout
Route to the parking lot About mid-morning on 17 August, Barry called to let us know that Eva was not feeling well, so we would be on our own for a Monday outing. [...]
The PS Rangiriri and Hayes Paddock
In the 1860s, in the midst of the Land Wars between the Māori Kīngitanga (Kingmen) and those loyal to the British Crown, the colonial government commissioned a gunboat that was specially designed to navigate narrow, [...]
Wairere Falls and Morrinsville
Fickle winter weather makes planning an excursion dicey, even for just an afternoon. So with the option of bowing out if the forecast 25-percent rain became 100 percent, we made plans with Barry and Eva [...]
Classic Car Museum
When Tom Andrews was a teenager in Melville, a neighborhood in the southern part of Hamilton, he started his own car restoration business. In the forty-something intervening years, his passion for automobilia has driven him [...]
Mangaiti Gully
In previous blog entries, we have shared basic information about the Waikato, New Zealand’s longest river. As the Waikato flows through Hamilton, it is fed by four major gully systems that comprise about 8 percent [...]
Ruakuri Reserve Walk
This morning’s housework involved dealing with an infestation of insects in our windowsill potted herb garden. In addition to spider mites in the basil, Nancy found two brilliant green caterpillars wrapped in fuzz that had [...]
This Is Where Work Gets Interesting
Michael’s major project for the Church History Department—the main reason Elder and Sister G were so eager for him to come to Hamilton—is to bring order to the Matthew Cowley Pacific Church History Centre’s large [...]
What We Do as Church History Specialists
We have been asked on many occasions: “So, what is it that you actually do?” As designated “Church history specialists,” we are basically volunteer, unpaid full-time employees of the Church History Department (CHD) of The [...]
Weekend Excursion Part 2: Waitangi and Maromaku
Rain began pounding against our windows at the Busby Manor Resort in Paihia after we went to bed on Saturday night (30 May) and didn’t let up until Monday. Although we had come to the [...]
Weekend Excursion Part 1: Paihia, Kerikeri, and Russell
Throughout the Commonwealth of Nations—countries that formerly were part of the British Empire—1 June is celebrated as the Queen’s Birthday (despite the fact that the Queen’s actual birthday has been 21 April for at least [...]